Opinion | A fake poll made real news. What does that say about political polling?

A bogus pollster injected fake numbers into the political information ecosystem. Here’s what journalists — and everyone else — should learn from it.

Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2026 9:30 am

Ren LaForme, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Phoenix Chapital | Poynter

A poll of Los Angeles voters released last week found Mayor Karen Bass leading Councilmember Nithya Raman by a wide and growing margin. Days earlier, a poll of Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary showed democratic socialist Francesca Hong walloping Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by more than 20 percentage points.

There were problems with both.

Crowley went on to comfortably defeat Hong in Wisconsin’s primary. And other polling of the Los Angeles race has shown a much tighter contest between Bass and Raman.

This wasn’t just another case of polling getting it wrong. These polls were fake. So was the polling company.

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Opinion | A fake poll made real news. What does that say about political polling?

A bogus pollster injected fake numbers into the political information ecosystem. Here’s what journalists — and everyone else — should learn from it.

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